Too much 'kass kass' THE ongoing "kass-kass" where artistes are hitting out at their colleagues with degrading lyrics is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of some people in the music business. Brenda Hamilton, manager of XL Limited and Baby Cham, explains that the humour has worn thin with artistes attacking each other with derogatory comments. "There was one song about Lady Saw not having kids and I personally take offence because there is no humour in that. I think artistes must be more creative. Once an artiste says something bad about a particular artiste the other artiste decides to throw back words. This is certainly disgusting," Hamilton said. Hamilton explains she has never encouraged any of her artistes to 'throw words' at each other. Richard Browne, record producer and manager of TOK certainly does not take sides with these artistes who are involved in this so-called "almshouse" "That (kass-kass) is f..... Things like man a eat under table only makes the business stagnant. Elephant Man start it with The Truth and did it with much humour. However, other artistes have decided to take it to another level and the almshouse continues," he said. The latest 'war of words' is between Cobra and Lexxus. Lexxus fired first with a hard-hitting verse in Unda Grass that goes: Cobra, a old snake, dem sit ting de ded out long time Right now, ah anaconda and rakkler a run de front line So oonu fi low young artiste mek dem shine. But Cobra pounced back with the no-nonsense Write Off that makes reference to Lexxus' jailtime, and goes: A wha tek dis likkle bwoy Whe a nyam down the place A no jigga yu fi name Yu fi name toilet face Flush dat Even Q45 who manages Elephant Mam feels artistes have no right to be slandering each other as this will lead to animosity, adding that he will not take responsibility if any of his artistes choose to go that way. When one listens to Jade Lee CEO of Jamaica Artistic Development Enterprise(JADE) the feeling is that she too is annoyed about this never-ending malicious act. "It (kass kass) is unnecessary, It is malicious and slanderous. In such a business there are a number of positive messages that one can promote. This is a festering atmosphere so I am annoyed when artistes move from humourous lyrics to the artiste bedroom and their sexual position." Singer J claims he has been a victim of some five artistes who were calling his name in songs. "Some of them say mi hype others that is pure tight pants me wearing but I am not in the business of answering any of these artistes. I am certainly not in this tracing match with any artiste," he said. Hawkeye agrees that artistes have been throwing hot words at him and he has been ignoring them. "Comments about not being able to see good do not make sense. To pick on entertainers is not healthy for the business. It is all about originating songs for people to enjoy. So I would like to tell my fellow entertainers to keep the music real and clean." But, artistes, like managers, believe that scandal in the music business will be hard to control given the cultural love of the wider society for 'scandal' and 'mix-up'.
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